According to the Sun, former F1 Mercedes team expert Michael Sansoni joins Manchester United and will be responsible for the club's player introduction.
Michael Sansoni was a performance engineer for seven-time world champion Hamilton at Mercedes. He has now moved to Manchester United as data director and brought a new look to the club's player introduction.
Sansoni has been involved in transfers between Cunha and Mbemo, who has formed the Brentford's "BMW" trio with Brentford. Sansoni joined the Mercedes team in 2014, where he held several positions, including senior performance simulation engineer. In the 2023 season, he was promoted to Hamilton's track performance engineer and broke up after working with the 40-year-old British driver for two years. During this time, he helped Mercedes win eight team titles and helped Hamilton win six driver titles. About one-third of the stake in the team is owned by Sir Ratcliff through his INEOS Petrochemicals. Manchester United's official statement said: "Sansoni will report to CEO Berrada to enhance the club's capabilities in data and artificial intelligence. With his experience in machine learning and advanced modeling in Formula One, he will work to make Manchester United a data-oriented organization that embeds predictive and AI-driven decision-making in football and other areas of the club."
To support these goals, multiple data, software and platform engineering positions will be recruited in the coming months to enable Sansoni to form his team. On LinkedIn, Sansoni said the signing of Cunya and Mbemo (the two spent £133.5 million in total) was based on his data-driven work.
He wrote: "I am fortunate to have not only one, but two dream jobs. After a remarkable time in Formula One, it is an honor to be part of the world's largest football club. We have made meaningful progress over the past few months. New approaches have begun to take shape, and two outstanding signing players - Cunia and Mbemo, have reflected the fruits of early work."
"I inherited a great team: smart, dedicated, and eager to make a difference. Together, we will build world-class data and artificial intelligence capabilities to drive decisions in football and beyond. The challenges are huge, but the opportunities are equally huge."